The Suicide (Russian: Самоубийца, romanized: Samoubiytsa) is a 1990 Soviet black comedy film directed by Valery Pendrakovsky,[2] adaptation of the play of the same name by Nikolai Erdman.

[3][4] The story follows Semyon Semyonovich Podsekalnikov (Sergey Shakurov), an insignificant man who lives off his weary wife, Maria Lukyanovna (Irina Byakova).

Fueled by alcohol, Semyon gains temporary courage, even calling the Kremlin to express his disdain for Marx, claiming victory when the line cuts off.

The film is punctuated by musical numbers in which a master of ceremonies (Valentin Gaft) delivers satirical verses, adding a surreal tone to this darkly comic portrayal of societal pressures and individual despair.

Film critic Alexander Fedorov noted: Valery Pendrakovsky is not one of the elite of Russian directing, but having the classical dramaturgy of Nikolai Erdman as a literary basis and having collected a bouquet of famous actors, he quite convincingly created on the screen a phantasmagoric world of a universal communal apartment in which every creature lives in a couple.